Application Timeline

We encourage applicants to have their materials submitted to the Graduate School and the Conservation Biology graduate program by December 15, 2007 to assure maximum consideration for assistantships and fellowships. Most fellowship decisions are made by mid-January. However, we will also consider applications submitted after this deadline until March 15, 2008. Except under unusual circumstances, students are accepted only for fall semester entrance.

Many of our incoming students are supported by first-year fellowships from the Graduate School, awarded University-wide on a competitive basis. We will invite applicants whose interests seem well suited to our program and who we think are strong fellowship candidates to visit in January. Though we can only invite a limited number of candidates, we request that applicants keep 17-20 January, 2008 available, at which time the program will host a Welcome Weekend. At this event, the program will interview these candidates and give them an excellent chance to get to know the faculty, students, and many aspects of our graduate program. We will provide payment of airfare to Minneapolis-St. Paul from within the U.S. for a limited number of invited students. If you are among those selected, you will be notified about two weeks before Welcome Weekend so that you may contact our travel agent to make reservations. Please note that not all applicants invited will ultimately be admitted, whereas some who do not receive invitations may be admitted.

The second stage of our admission process begins in early March, when we begin formally admitting students. At this point, we are in a position to put together individualized financial aid packages for the students we admit. Financial packages consist of some mix of Fellowships (e.g., Graduate School, McArthur), Teaching Assistantships, and Research Assistantships. Admitted students may compete for summer salary only support which is supported through block grants.

All Doctoral and Master's candidates can expect notification of admission no later than mid-April.